In its efforts to build a successful football program, University of Louisiana is turning to fans and the local business community.

Come Saturday, it won't feel much like football season as the University of Louisiana's team takes to the field for its first home game. Not like it will in the latter part of the season. There won't be a nip in the air, rather a sullen mugginess. Late summer foliage will still cling stubbornly to the trees. A thermos of coffee won't taste nearly as good.

Nonetheless, there will be loyal fans arriving at the stadium, ready for some football, Ragin' Cajun style. UL just needs lots more of them - and even more support from a business community that is embracing UL sports wholeheartedly.

The university has launched several initiatives to build a better football program, and an expert on sports teams and marketing says it could ultimately work, with the team becoming another economic engine that drives Lafayette.

And there's much at stake, including a nebulous quality called community pride, tinged with the very real threat of whether or not UL can meet the criteria to continue playing NCAA-sanctioned sports in Division I-A.

The NCAA has decreed that by 2004, all I-A teams must average 15,000 fans at every home football game or drop out of the division.

In response, the team hired a new coach and launched a marketing effort to urge more people to attend the games. And it seems to have helped, with 2002 attendance at an average 15,056 per home game, up from an average 14,929 the year before. But the team is just barely there; it's a margin far too close for comfort.

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald Kristi Dempsey
Posted on September 3, 2003

This is the new sidewalk. I think a lot more people will notice Christian "Red Flash" Cagles Monument now.

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Originally posted by Turbine This is the Patio done by DreamScapes and Percy Guidry Iron Works.

I think I'll have these guys do my patio! Sweet!

Great pictures Turbine!! Thanks. I can wait to see Cajun Field on Saturday.

Strictly by the numbers, finding a base of fans shouldn't be much of a debate locally. The UL Alumni Association currently lists 24,629 active mailing addresses for alumni in Lafayette Parish and 14,278 more in the five parishes that share a border with Lafayette, including Acadia, Iberia, St. Landry, St. Martin and Vermilion parishes. The LSU Alumni Association lists only 4,312 active addresses in Lafayette Parish and 4,104 in the other five parishes.

That's 38,907 to 8,416 if you're scoring at home.

So how come, because there are nearly five times more UL alumni than LSU alumni in Acadiana, there is even a question over where the area's loyalties lie?

"That variance in numbers only underscores a different point, one that most Cajun supporters refuse to acknowledge or don't want to hear.

Quite simply, and especially in football: The average LSU fan is much more passionate about his program than the average UL fan and is much more likely to open his wallet to fulfill that passion.

The UL athletic program reported approximately $880,000 in monetary giving during the last fiscal year. The Tiger Athletic Foundation, LSU's primary conduit for athletic gift-giving, operates outside of the LSU athletic department and records are not as accessible, but it's estimated that $500,000 of that group's annual $12 million to $14 million take comes directly from the Acadiana area.

LSU sells many more tickets in Acadiana compared to its alumni base than the hometown university. "

This is going to change. Trust me.


The sleeper must awaken

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Originally posted by DADDYCAJUN2 on delphi Read the article in the Times by Dan McDonald, Sept. 3rd, 2003! UL has broken ground or will break ground in the next 6-12 months on over $130 million in construction projects: -F.G. Mouton Renovation and Addition $ 9.5 million -Burke-Hawthorne Renovations $ 9 million -Technology Building $18 million -Computer Science Facility $ 7.5 million -Varsity Track Replacement $ 1.4 million -Bourgeois Hall Weight Room Addition $ 2.9 million -Vehicular Parking Garage $ 4.9 million -Chimpanzee Housing Facility $ 7.3 million -Marine Survival Trainging Center $750 thousand -Legacy Park Apartments $15.7 million -Student Union Renovation and Addition $30 million -University Art Museum $ 8 million -University Hotel Facility $15 million -Angelle Hall Percussion Wing Addition $250 thousand -Madison Hall HVAC Renovations $330 thousand -French House Renovations $200 thousand Total $130,860,000 Dan did not add the INDOOR PRACTICE FACILITY $3.6+ Million AND the Doubling of the Weight Room Size as well and the locker rooms and training areas as well as offices(amount unknown to me) Thanks Dan for such a positive article and the use of UL throughout!!! The article is a great read with a whole bunch more GREAT info, pick up a Times today!!!!!! Geaux LOUISIANA!!!!!!!